Hike #342 5/3/8
5/3/8 Blue Mountain/LNE Railraod Loop (Blue Mountain Summit West) with "Amish Paul" and Wyatt Hassler, Tom Petrucci, "Naaron" Young, Jack Lowry, David Noble, Bill "Guillermo" Fabel, Steve Kurk, and Ron Phelps.
The group coming up a dirt road onto Blue Mountain
My next hike would lead me the farthest continues connecting westbound section to date, making use of more of the Appalachian Trail and the Lehigh and New England Railroad right of way beginning at PA Rt 309 between New Tripoli and Tamaqua.
Appalachian Trail
Near Tri County Marker off of the AT
Tri County Marker of Berks, Lehigh, and Schuykill coming together
I'm in three counties at once!!! Berks, Lehigh, and Schuykill!
Overlook on Blue Mountain west of Old Dresher Road
Fields near Kepnee PA
David loves to peer into pictures
Not much to see of the former LV railroad bed...rough hiking through
The former LV railroad bed is visible here
Former Lehigh Valley Railroad bed near Snyders PA
Railroad bed west of Snyders PA
We had to walk through fields to regain the railroad bed
LV railroad bed
The railroad crossed where the driveway is, so we had to walk the road for a bit
Had to road walk some
Amish Paul showed up for a bit
Former LV railroad
Abandoned house along the former LV railroad bed...it was for sale!
Former LV railroad bed
Found an antler. The guys I was working with at the time would have creamed their pants.
Former LV railroad bed
Former LV railroad bed
Former LV railroad bed
Former LV railroad west of Snyders PA
Quarried section of former LV railroad west of Snyders PA
Former LV railroad west of Snyders PA
Former Lehigh and New England Railroad, Snyders PA
Former Lehigh and New England Raiload, Snyders PA
Former Lehigh Valley Railroad, Snyders PA
Former Lehigh Valley Railroad, Snyders PA
Rail bed east of Snyders PA
Former rail bed east of Snyders PA
Along Ridge Road
Along Ridge Road
Farm view along Ridge Road
Joining me this time would be "Naaron" Young (for his last hike before joining the army), Jack Lowry, David Noble, Bill "Guillermo" Fabel, Tom Petrucci, "Amish Paul" and Wyatt Hassler, Ron Phelps, and Steve ?. We began walking on the Appalachian Trail from PA Rt 309 heading southwest. It was a foggy day, but it does'nt matter so much because there are really very few viewpoints on the Appalachian Trail in PA anyway, and when there are they all look the same. We continued along the trail, and we crossed what maps show as Blue Mountain-House Road. We were being relatively noisy and some woman at the trail parking area yelled at us because when I said I had to pee, Wyatt told me we were right next to the parking area. I said "I don't care" and she yelled "But I do!". Also, David was setting off fireworks which we told him a few times to stop, and some hikers who passed us were a bit nervous thinking it was guns. By the time we reached the Tri County Corner along the AT he had given them to Ron because it was just going to cause trouble. We had planned on heading off the AT to bushwhack a section, but it was far too slippery to try it, so we did'nt. We continued on for a ways, and Amish Paul and Ron turned back. There was one more spot the maps called "Balance Rocks" which was just an outcropping to the south of the trail which would normally have a view, but we had none. Soon, we came to an old road that crossed the mountain, which the AT followed to the right for a bit. We soon took another old road to the right of the trail which would descend the ridge to the north. We followed it with no problems, and it came out on a loop driveway. We followed the driveway down hill with no problems to Indian Run Road. We turned briefly to the left, then bushwhacked through woods to the north passing an abandoned house. My plan was to follow this woodland to a field to the north, which worked out fine. Once at the top of a steep ascent, we made our way along the field skirting it to the south, then followed a power line cut north and a parallel woods road heading to Pine Valley Road. Fortunitely, the old road did not come out next to a house. There was a nearby road, Spruce Street, where we were going to access the former Lehigh and New England Railroad bed, but it was unfortunitely far too overgrown to walk, and impractical because Pine Valley Road so closely paralleled it. We followed the road for a ways heading east. We could soon see the rail bed, sometimes with ties still in place, to the north. Pine Valley Road soon took a ninety degree turn to the north, and the rail bed entered the woods straight ahead. There was a no trespassing sign there, not in plain sight, but I threw it off to the left so we could claim ignorance! We wandered in along the rail bed, which was'nt totally clear, but still doable. There were a lot of blowdowns along the way, but we got around them heading to a field area. I was now getting pretty nervous because someone was shooting in a lot directly to the north of us. I got everyone to hurry across an opening in the fields and followed a field parallel with the rail bed on the opposite side of a tree line to stay out of sight. I had checked all the arial images on Google Earth in the days leading to the hike, but I was not prepared for a new house that had been constructed straight ahead on the rail bed since the outdated arial pictures were taken. Fortunitely, Steve had a GPS which came in handy. We opted to head up hill along the line of the field to Deer Run Road, but to our surprise, the Deer Run Road as shown on the map was long abandoned! This was actually fine, as it made for a better hike. We headed downhill on the road gradually heading east, the direction we needed to be going. When the road came to a narrow bend, we bushwhacked into the woods and made our way to the railroad bed, after crossing a small creek. The rail bed was clear enough that we could walk it easily, but it was'nt heavily used. We soon came out to another part of Pine Valley Road, and a house had been built over the rail bed straight ahead. We opted to go right on Pine Valley Road (in retrospect we should have gone left and bushwhacked back to the rail bed). We ended up walking Pine Valley Road to the end, and we turned left on Blue Mountain Road and then right on Blue Mountain Drive. We had to walk this road for quite a ways, still parallel with the rail bed until we got to Retreat Road on the left. Amish Paul had showed up in his car to follow us and see how we were doing. We put our packs into his car which helped our backs a lot. I ran down Retreat Road to see if it was feasable to walk, and it was! The rail bed was clearest yet, as it had been used by ATVs often. Amish Paul parked his car and walked with us for a ways. We followed this section of the rail bed out to Dorset Road, along the way passing an abandoned house. It had a "house for sale" sign on it, and Amish Paul went inside and found tons of pennies! He loaded Wyatt's socks up with pennies which was hilarious (he ended up giving them all to me and I bought chocolate milk with them the next day). Once we got to Dorset's Road Paul turned back. The rest of us bushwhacked onto the rail bed on the opposite side, which was'nt as clear, but it was walkeable. We were passing behind some houses in a cut, but soon we had to use a break in the trees to get back out to Blue Mountain Drive as the rail bed was far too overgrown ahead. We walked a little ways on Blue Mountain Drive, then turned left onto a tiny woods road which led to the clear rail bed heading east. It was almost perfect all the way to Rt 309 from here. There was one area that looked a bit quarried out, and we passed mostly through woods, with one nice field section below us to the north. We reached a gate over the rail bed to ahead as we neared Rt 309 and bushwhacked down to the north to reach the former Lehigh Valley Railroad bed parallel with the LNE line, following it to Rt 309, passing an access from Bolich's Road at a sharp turn. We carefully crossed Rt 309 where a bridge had once been, but no remaining abutments. We continued on the LV railroad heading sort of northeast, which was rather overgrown at times. Some of it was actually quite incredible, having large trees growing through it, groves of Rhododendron and Hemlock all around made the rail bed hardly recognizeable as such. We continued for a ways, then bushwhacked to the south to reach the former LNE rail bed once again. We followed it all the way to Ridge Road, where we had picked up the rail bed on a previous hike. We followed Ridge Road to the south, heading brutally up hill on the pavement to where Ridge Road ended. Jack was playing "The Sausage Fest" song he came up with as a result of the lack of women on this hike. This was all we had to break the monotony of the ascent. At the end of the paved road, the abandoned Ridge Road continued through State Game Lands up hill toward Rt 309. I met up with Amish Paul in the woods before reaching the parking lot. It was a very brutal climb. We were going to have some dinner somewhere, but it was getting late and no one was really in the mood, so we stopped at Burger King, and Jack treated myself as well as Naaron to burgers. It was a very nice gesture, especially considering it was Naaron's last hike before heading off to the military.
Hunterdon yo
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